


After-Echo

by Im_The_Doctor (Bofur1)



Category: Video Blogging RPF, Youtube RPF
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst and Feels, Awkward Tension, Best Friends, Bittersweet, Caretaking, Caring, Comfort, Crying, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family Feels, First Meetings, Grief/Mourning, Guilt, Hugs, Hurt/Comfort, Joyful, Mid-Canon, Multiple Selves, Relief, Reunions, Reunited and It Feels So Good, Schneep Meets Jameson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-04
Updated: 2018-05-04
Packaged: 2019-05-02 05:34:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14537757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bofur1/pseuds/Im_The_Doctor
Summary: After nine long, terrible months of grieving their doctor, the other Egos react to his return.





	After-Echo

It was early morning when he returned. The air had a definite chill to it and a breeze was kicking up, brushing Schneep’s tangled hair away from his ashen face as he stumbled toward the door of Egos Incorporated. How he had escaped, none of them knew, but they didn’t bother to ask—not yet.

He was dangerously slim, cheekbones and ribs and hips defined in all the wrong places, and his hands were unsteady, but none of them cared. Chase had no qualms whatsoever about shoving past Marvin, who was paralyzed with shock, and running to meet him halfway, tackling the frail doctor in an inescapable hug. Schneep’s back instinctively arched and his face contorted in understated pain, unseen by the vlogger, but he didn’t say a word to stop him, relaxing inch by inch, letting Chase cry into his bony shoulder.

Gradually Marvin shook off the paralysis, venturing closer with difficulty, willing himself to stay stiff, strong and collected. When he stumbled to a stop just behind Chase, Schneep shifted, lifted his head away from Chase’s shoulder and _looked_ at him. Marvin’s breath stuttered. His face was bruised, concave, scruffy and smudged with old bloodstains, but his eyes…There was nothing but Schneep in those eyes. The weight of this moment struck him in the chest like a bag of rocks and he visibly shuddered, doubling over and hiding his face behind trembling hands as his vision blurred.

Chase peeled away from Schneep then, glancing back and down at the magician. “Marv…?” he murmured tremulously, barely audible over the icy breeze. Marvin only answered with a violent shake of the head, too overcome to look up at them. Schneep kept his left arm wrapped around Chase’s back, leaning on him for support, but his other hand was free to brush Marvin’s shoulder.

His fingertips were icy. Marvin could feel the chill seep through his sleeve, but the touch was gentle. His own hands lifted, groping helplessly at Schneep’s outstretched wrist. He tried to keep his grip loose; Schneep had gotten so thin that Marvin’s hands could close completely around his wrist with no trouble at all. Between his palms, he could feel his pulse battering away and that was when he was able to rise, letting go of his wrist, wrapping his arms around Schneep and Chase and dragging them in by the neck.

“M-Marv, Marv—not so tight, you’re going to hurt him!” Chase objected tearfully (hypocritically).

“I don’t care, I don’t _care_ ,” Marvin sobbed weakly, burying his hands in their hair. “Just…let me hold you both.”

None of them knew how long they stood in their huddle, but neither Chase nor the doctor were going anywhere until Marvin was ready to release them and every time he thought he was, he hesitated. If he let go, Schneep could turn out to be an illusion, blown away by the wind.

He knew he couldn’t afford to be selfish, though. His thoughts drifted to the others. Schneep—oh, Schneep still hadn’t met Jameson. Robbie would need him…And Jackie.

It took a great deal of his will, but ever so carefully he pried his hand away from where it cradled Schneep’s head and drew in a momentous breath. Now that they could draw apart, Schneep looked up at him a second time and Marvin blinked hard, forcing a smile in return.

“C’mon. Let’s let the others take a look at you.”

As soon as Chase helped him through the door, Schneep visibly relaxed, as if a weight had slid off his shoulders and broken on the floor. He left it in his wake, breath quickening as he carefully pulled away from Chase and carried his own weight, the blue in his eyes brightening with emotion as he scanned the familiar surroundings.

“You haven’t redecorated,” he whispered thickly. “Not one little bit.”

There was a sweeping pause after these words, almost chilling, as Marvin and Chase glanced at each other, speechless. Schneep’s first words. His first words to them in nine months. Chase’s following laugh was more of a sob, if he was honest, but it was one of relief.

“We…we couldn’t do it without you, doc.”

“Do-o-oc?” a slurred voice echoed, drawing their attention. Robbie stood at the entrance to the hallway, his head tilted at an inhuman angle as he stared at Schneep. “Do-o-oc?” he repeated testingly, cautiously, shuffling a step forward and then thinking better of it, shrinking back to his previous spot.

“Hello, Robbie…”

The zombie’s head turned the other way, his eyes opening wide and then narrowing in thought. “She-e-e-eep?”

“…Yes,” Schneep assured him, visibly struggling against the tears as he reached out to him. “It’s me.”

Gingerly retaking the step forward, Robbie leaned, snuffling at Schneep’s outstretched fingers like a wary dog, and then he perked up.

“Sheep,” he gasped, whirling around toward Chase and waving sloppily at the doctor, batting his hand with his own. “Sheep!”

“Yeah, that’s right,” Chase concurred, jerking a forceful nod. “It’s Schneep.”

At these words, Robbie’s whole face lit up and he waved his hands out again, pawing at the doctor’s sleeve and bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet, stammering out something too overexcited to be coherent. Schneep finally let the tears spill as he caught one of Robbie’s flailing arms and pulled him close, letting out a little gasp as the zombie reciprocated by bear-hugging his waist and lifting him right off the floor.

“Sheep! Here! Now!” he babbled gleefully, staggering around with him and swaying him back and forth as if they were dancing. Even as the others tried to hide their smiles, Marvin noticed a familiar sepia aura clinging to the walls of the hallway and stepped up, holding up his hands.

“Okay, okay, Robbie, you need to put Schneep down now; Jameson’s here to meet him.” Robbie paused, giving him a blank look, and Marvin gestured beyond him. “Ames. Ames wants to meet Schneep.”

At that the zombie spun in the direction of the hallway, allowing Schneep his first glimpse of Jameson. Each of them stiffened slightly—not out of any particular defensiveness that the others could see, but there was definitely a sense of uncertainty. Once Robbie reluctantly let Schneep slide back onto the floor, the doctor pulled lightly on his lapels to straighten his attire and peered at Marvin, uncomprehending.

“Schneep…this is Jameson Jackson,” the magician explained tentatively, moving into the space between them in case they needed a mediator. “He arrived while you were…He arrived on Halloween.”

 **“How d’you do?”** Jameson tipped his hat as his speech slide materialized, taking Schneep aback.

“He’s—JJ’s mute,” Chase put in unnecessarily.

Nodding slowly as he processed this, Schneep looked Jameson up and down, wordlessly tugging on his lapels a second time and lifting his chin a bit higher than was strictly necessary. Jameson wisely inclined his head, letting the doctor assert whatever dominance he needed.

 **“I’ve heard a great deal about you,”** he tried, ironically, to fill the silence as Schneep perused him. **“Many wonderful things…These fellows had quite a job telling me about _all_ of your accomplishments. It’s an honor to meet such an accomplished chap and I—I’ve been looking forward to getting more acquainted.”**

There was another pause, during which the only thing they could hear was Robbie mumbling and grunting under his breath as he looked on. Chase and Marvin were visibly tense, unsure which cogs were turning in the doctor’s mind. Was he hurt that Jack had created a new Ego while he was gone? Was he bitter?

“We should have dinner…Will let us catch up,” Schneep reciprocated at last, causing Jameson to nod hastily and thrust out a hand for him to shake.

**“Count on it, good sir!”**

At that Schneep couldn’t help but smile a little, but it was wiped away just as quickly when he noticed a flicker of red in his peripheral vision, shadowed but looming closer. He dropped Jameson’s hand, looking beyond Marvin with wide eyes as Jackieboy emerged. The magician instinctively backed away, indicating that Jameson should do the same.

If they thought the silence was deafening before, it was a complete void now as the hero stood across from his closest friend for the first time in 274 days. Jackieboy was trembling so violently that they almost thought they could hear the hum of the energy in his blood, like an after-echo. After three solid minutes, Jackieboy surged forward half a step, cupping Schneep’s bruised and scruffy face to see if it was real.

“Henr…” He started, his voice breaking as Schneep took a precarious breath and ducked his head, another round of tears streaking his cheeks under Jackie’s thumbs. Jackie was quick to swipe at them, crooning desperately, “Oh, no, no, don’t…don’t—”

He gave up mid-sentence, opting for actions rather than words. Henrik didn’t resist, tumbling weightlessly into the embrace like it was his open bed after a sixteen-hour shift. After just a few seconds one of them collapsed—none of the others could tell which; it could have been either—and the other promptly dropped with them, creating an unwieldy tangle of clinging arms, unresponsive legs and bumping heads. Neither of them seemed to feel any pain; they were in their own worlds.

“Henrik, I-I—I’ve _missed_ you _so much_ —”

“Mein Bruder, meine Familie, mein Bruder, es tut mir so Leid, I’m so _sorry_ —”

“I couldn’t—Nine—Nine months—N-Nine _months_ —” Jackie’s next words were lost into a hitched stutter and then a keening, broken cry. Schneep’s hiccupped breaths quickened in mingled grief and alarm as he pushed back Jackie’s hood, trying to get him to look up again. His job was to comfort, to heal, but Jackie wasn’t having it. Instead he grabbed desperately at his friend’s shirt and coat, bowing his head against his forearms and near-heaving with agonized sobs. “I failed you…” he choked out. “I f-failed you…”

“No!” the doctor pleaded hoarsely, pressing his hands against Jackie’s shoulders and back. “I’m _here!_ ” As Jackieboy only wept harder, Henrik clenched his eyes shut and quivered, rubbing his back and repeating the mantra in a pained hiss. “I’m here…I’m here, Jackie…I’m here…” Each word grew fainter than the last.

After what seemed like hours, they both stilled, quieted, too spent to continue. Even so, they weren’t anywhere close to releasing each other. Just as Marvin and Chase had, Jackieboy kept him close, and they knew he was memorizing the pattern of Schneep’s breathing—letting it sink in that he was here, safe, alive. Since crying, Schneep looked even more exhausted than he had when he’d first walked toward the building, and once Jackieboy could find the strength to look up at him, he noticed.

“We…we need to get you better,” he managed at last, raw and low in his throat. “We need to let you heal.”

Schneep made a half-formed noise of assent, little more than a hum, and then he blinked a few times and exhaled, mustering himself.

“Yes. And then I…there’s something I need to address,” he murmured, pursing his lips and glancing heavily up at the others around them. “There’s someone who thinks he can take my place. Some imposter doctor.”

Those words immediately struck a chord in all of them, causing them to shift back in unease, but Schneep shook his head a little, sitting up straighter and squaring his shoulders.

“No, don’t…do not worry,” he shushed them before they could speak, bloodshot, puffy eyes narrowing with the first grim spark of defiance they had seen today. “Do not worry. I’m going to deal with this. As soon as I’ve gained my strength…I’ll make sure they know who the real doctor is.”

**Author's Note:**

> It's finally happened. AT LONG LAST, DR. SCHNEEPLESTEIN HAS FINALLY RETURNED.  
> I cried so hard when I saw him onscreen again; I've missed him more than I could possibly say and I'm sure the other Egos have too. 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this little emotional roller coaster; these poor boys deserved to finally spend all of their pent-up grief <3


End file.
